Saiyuki: Singapore Style
by narrizan
Summary: Alternate Universe. Life on a small island in the far east is heaven for Goku as it revolves around food!


I have been remiss in my duties and had left this out the last couple of times : Disclaimer : Nothing is mine! Not the characters, the food nor the places. Only wishful thinking on my part.

Saiyuki: Singapore Style

Of Chili Crabs and Noodles

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Hakkai clacked away on the keyboard; one eye on the time…Gojyo would be late if he wasn't careful. Hakkai made to get up and knock on the bedroom door when the man himself exited with a gorgeous smile. Hakkai's breath caught in his throat. It was Friday, deemed dress down day at Gojyo's workplace, so he had pulled on a pair of dark navy jeans on, and a burgundy silk shirt, top collar button left undone. Long hair tied in a loose pony tail. Hakkai could just see the schoolgirls trailing his handsome partner to the train station. Even during the rest of the week, when Gojyo had to put on a collared shirt, tie and smart trousers, Hakkai had no doubt that Gojyo would still have the women following him.

"Aah there you are. I thought I was going to have to haul you out of bed."

"And whose fault would that be?" Gojyo smirked at Hakkai.

"Don't be too late at work tonight as we're having dinner with Sanzo and Goku after work."

"I'll come home first yeah!"

"Mmm, ok"

Gojyo closed the door behind him remembering to lock it; Hakkai was already lost to the pc again. He was like that when he was finishing preparatory work for his students. Hakkai gave private tuition, in primary school mandarin, and mathematics. He didn't really want to teach full time in a school, too much politicking and not enough of a free hand to teach how he liked. The school system did not really agree with Hakkai's methods, even though things were beginning to change, and rules were being relaxed in favour of the students having a chance to develop a thinking mind as opposed to regurgitation of facts learnt by rote. Hakkai also enjoyed the flexible hours of having lessons according to a timetable of his own choosing. It was a world away from that of environmental chemistry.

Gojyo meanwhile worked as a dtp artist for an NGO affiliated at the University. It didn't pay much, but the work was good, and it helped that it was a small organization, so less incompetents to work with. Between the two of their wages they managed to get by. The lived in a Housing Development Board (HDB) flat. Unlike Sanzo and Goku, who lived downtown in a condominium apartment, complete with pool, sauna and private gym. Well Sanzo was a reliability engineer (whatever one of those was) with one of the big companies in the electronics and wafer fabrication industry, and Goku worked with the Ministry of Health as a dietitian of all things. Well at least Goku was dealing with what he loved best…food! Of course whatever pearls of wisdom Goku imparted to obese old ladies whose diet consisted of rich coconut and cholesterol laden _laksa_ and greasy _hainanese chicken rice_ about eating simpler, less rich foods; had nothing to do with the fact that if you looked into their refrigerator all you would find was beer (Sanzo's of course), chocolate and all other kinds of cholesterol rich goodies, that even Gojyo had to say no to and more beer, of course.

Gojyo wondered where they were going for dinner. He hoped that they weren't eating at Grangeford where Sanzo and Goku resided. Because Sanzo was a lousy cook and Goku wasn't that much better. Although Goku had taken some lessons from Hakkai once. Well perhaps he just might suggest eating at Newton, because the beer was cheap. Well they would probably discuss it later when they met up. His journey to work was mostly done on auto pilot. Once he had the route planned out. Gojyo was good at tuning out stuff he didn't need in his life. So everything just went by in a blurry haze. Hakkai had accused him of being unobservant once.

Gojyo wondered (not for the first time) about Hakkai, he knew the tutor worked in a laboratory once. But Hakkai didn't talk about his past much and it looked like it was a painful one, and not all of it was related to work. Gojyo snorted to himself, they made an excellent pair, and it wasn't like he didn't have his own hellish background he'd rather not think about, absent mindedly fingering the scars on his left cheek. But they seemed to dance around talking about stuff too well that he could just put it down to it never being the right time or that it was simply too soon. His morning musings usually got him as far as the train station, he usually had a book to last him the rest of the way.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Goku muttered under his breath. It was just not fair, for him the weekend didn't start till Saturday twelve thirty in the afternoon. Working for the civil service meant that you had to work every other Saturday, and this meant that although his three older friends would normally go out on a Friday night, and they could sleep it all off the next day, he had to haul his sorry bleary eyed self in to work the next day. Perhaps one day the government would allow its civil servants to work a five day week instead. Then again by that time he might be somewhere else already.

He thought of his life now. It seemed like a strange network of half hinted truths and coincidences that never failed to give him a migraine if he thought about it too much. But he couldn't help it. There was so much he wanted to remember but on the other hand maybe he shouldn't want to. He thought to the first time that he had seen Sanzo…

…

He woke up in a sunshine filled room. Silhouetted by the sun, a shadowy figure stood with his back to Goku pondering the outside world. "Aa. You're awake," it had said without turning to look. "Do you have a name?"

"Goku."

"Can you tell me where you live?"

And he had tried to remember. Nothing. He could not remember a single thing. Well not details like where he came from or who he was apart from his name. He did not even know where here was. The only thing he could remember that petrified him was darkness. In the darkness were despair and the thought that there was something that niggled and tickled the back of his mind but couldn't reach it.

After Goku woke up in the hospital, Sanzo had the white coats check him out. They'd run so many tests, poked him with enough needles to feel like a voodoo doll and wired him to all sorts of machinery. And all that the both of them had been told was that Goku was fit and healthy and could go home. The other diagnosis was the amnesia. They had put it down to concussion due to the beating Goku had received. They said the memories could forever evade him, or it could all come back tomorrow…but there was no real way of telling; how, when or even if.

For whatever reason; after those bewildering days in the hospital, Sanzo had not just taken him home, Sanzo had also taken him in.

"You can stay here, till you find your way round and get back on your feet." Sanzo had said to him gruffly.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Sanzo, sat at his desk. Glad that it was Friday and nearly home time too. It would be nice to meet up with those two reprobates tonight. Although you would never ever catch him to admitting such things out loud. Thinking of them brought his mind round to Goku, at which, the corners of his mouth upturned into the merest hint of an almost smile. He was proud of what his ward had achieved.

After finding him bereft of memories; Sanzo had not been quite sure what to do. He supposed he could have easily washed his hands off him, after leaving him at the A&E the night he found Goku. Sanzo had heard a commotion in an alley on his way home from the clubs that night; and curiosity getting the better of him, he went to investigate. He'd made like a drunk crashing this way and that, and singing very loudly and off key he'd manage to surprise the perpetrators and they'd run off. All Sanzo could remember of them was that there were three, and that tallest was really thin (almost as emaciated as himself) and had really dark almost midnight hair.

But there was something that called loudly in his mind, tugging at his soul, as he had hauled the boy then, blood soaked and beaten. In a moment of semi consciousness Goku opened his eyes, and Sanzo made the fatal mistake and looked into them. And it was not so much a loud calling but a scream that seemed to stretch in his mind and fill his very being, and o he so wanted to shut it up.

He had left Goku, in the capable hands of the hospital staff, as Sanzo set about trying to place Goku. Sanzo was not without resources you see. But everywhere he turned up a blank. Like he did not exist at all. Now that was quite odd in a place like this.

You were tagged as soon as you were born, your birth registered, whether or not you had parents, and you were given a number. This number you kept for life. Your birth registration became your identity card number at age twelve and you used it to apply for everything from going into kindergarten to applying for a home loan on a mortgage. Even foreigners who came on a visit were given a visa number. Whether for pleasure or business. The rumour went round that there was something in the stamping ink that let the authorities know where you were…at all times. He smirked at that. Sanzo knew that rumour was unfounded, but there was something that let the powers that be know where you were and truth was stranger than that fiction and he was not about to let on either. In a place like this, even if you could hide your tracks, if someone was single minded enough, they would find you. Besides where would you run to?

However it was not the case with Goku. It seemed all avenues led to a brick wall. And Goku simply didn't exist. He was not anywhere in the efficient well oiled system. But there again Sanzo was not without resources, and had called in a few favours, to install Goku firmly within the system. Even giving him a surname. So now he was Son Goku. It felt an apt name. He had to be descended from somewhere even if that was a total mystery. If someone wanted to find him again, to finish what they started, alarm bells would go ringing even if someone so much as typed his name in a search engine. And Sanzo had enough resources to be warned if such a thing occurred.

He had Goku's level of education assessed, and finding out that he was actually a lot more intelligent than his demeanor and exuberance indicated. Managed to enroll him on some courses at Polytechnic, and Goku had decided for himself that food was where his interest lay. So after graduating with a diploma on a food and nutrition course, he had Goku registered with the SDA (the dietitians association here) he had found employment with the Ministry of Health.

So yes Goku was alright now and he could lead an independent life if he so wished. But Sanzo never asked him to leave, and Goku never wanted to.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Hakkai got home first. So he decided to jump into the shower first, and be quick about it. It would not do to have Gojyo catching him in there; else they would end up being really late. Sanzo did so disliked tardiness. Well there were a lot of things that Sanzo did not like. The man was an enigma and he was not all what he seemed. Who was he kidding; the four of them were an odd circle of friends to be sure. But for all the bickering and gruffness, they were suited to each other. They balanced each other out in a peculiar way. Like remnants of cloth sewn together to make a quilt. Like hues on a wheel spun fast to make colour white.

Hakkai and Sanzo knew each other the longest. And Gojyo had dropped into Hakkai's life about the same time Sanzo had found Goku in a dark alley. As the warm water sprayed over his body he closed his eyes and Hakkai thought back to the day he had met the redhead…

…

Being a researcher carrying out work affiliated to the university, he had his own little office, and a mess of a library on campus. Hakkai had been deep in thought mulling the advantages of a biological treatment over chemical processing, and was considering combining the two with mechanical mixing thrown into the operation. He was unaware that someone had come a knocking on his door, and was therefore very surprised when the door banged open and the jarring caused the contents precariously stuffed into an overflowing bookshelf to come down on an unsuspecting stranger. All he could see sprawled under the mountain of books was incredibly long legs and arms. A rather big file had landed open on the poor man's head. As he moved over to help the hapless stranger, hands touched and trilled with electricity in the moving of the offensive item. Hakkai was met with brown eyes almost russet, the colour of a burgundy sunset. Eyes that was full of merriment, and deep with intent. Hakkai had almost been sad that all he could offer was a flat empty glass eyed look. Still the situation was not without hilarity, and Hakkai had broken into a smiling laughter.

The man slowly got up and with that laugh and smile, hell yeah he could forgive him. "I'm Sha Gojyo and I presume this isn't 05-08, School of Communication Studies."

"Right unit, wrong building my friend." Hakkai mentally thanked the gods for the mistake. He gestured through the window towards the next building. "This is Environmental Engineering. I could take you there if you'd like." He knew some people over there, he could use that as an excuse to walk him over.

"Yeah sure. That'd be good. Thanks."

They had talked and Hakkai was rewarded with smiles from Gojyo that were like life rushing through. A smirk which hinted at the brink of all the answers existence had to offer. Hakkai was hooked, intrigued. And he set about making Gojyo his. It wasn't just books that Gojyo got hit with that day.

…

Hakkai smiled to himself in the shower. O glorious day.

He was all dressed and again working on the pc again when Gojyo walked in. Except for the change in clothes, he looked to Gojyo as if he had not moved from that spot since the morning. But he had that fresh soapy clean smell and his hair was still slightly damp. Gojyo put his hands on those hunched shoulders and squeezed. He pressed his thumbs down into the small of Hakkai's back slid them down in a firm movement and the rest of his digits splayed out and circled the blades. After a few minutes of that Hakkai had to stop him as it was sending him to sleep.

"Ok I'll get ready then. Any idea where we're going? 'Cause if we're stuck for ideas, I like to put in my choice…as Newton's". He said as he stripped to go to the bathroom. With the bedroom door open.

Hakkai shook his head and smiled. Really, that man was shameless as well as being a tease. He continued to work while he waited.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Goku rushed to answer the door.

"Ch. You're late," the gruff voice came as if disembodied from behind the day's paper. "The monkey has been driving me insane."

"So have we decided where we are going to go tonight?" Sanzo queried, pointedly looking at Hakkai.

"As long as there's beer"

"As long as there's food"

"Ahahaha." Hakkai said, "well Gojyo has suggested Newton."

"Yay!"

"There's no air-conditioning there."

"They have fans Sanzo, and it is outdoors. And at least we can choose what we want to eat."

"Hn. Come on then!"

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

It was all fluorescent and neon, lights and the bustle of people. It was not early at nine in the evening, but Newton really woke up after the clubs shut. It was busy mostly at this time of night with tourists, and families. But still it was a good time to come as you didn't have to vulture for seats. They meandered as vendors beckoned them to either sit here or there, finally they chose a sizable table far enough away from the main crowd. Each of them took note of the table number.

"You two can go first as we made us late," Hakkai offered.

Goku excitedly walked down the row of stalls…he knew exactly what he wanted. It had been awhile after all. Cholesterol or no, bad fats or otherwise, Goku was going to order _Chili crab_! Sanzo just knew what he was in for. He hid his face behind a hand. There were seafood places galore here but there was this one guy who gave out generous portions and the sauce was to die for.

"Uncle! Chili crab please, two medium, and four steamed _mantou_ and four deep fried ones please!"

Sanzo added, "could we also have one medium _kai lan_ please." He liked that because they came steamed and sprinkled with fried shallots.

"Really Goku, you shouldn't forget the vegetables. You know about all this stuff! Ah uncle we're at table 93!" Sanzo shouted over his shoulder as they walked off.

"Yeah let's get back. We don't want Gojyo to pass out from hunger."

When they got back to the table, Hakkai had ordered the drinks already. There were two mugs of _teh tarik halia_ for Hakkai and Sanzo, and Gojyo had iced coffee, and Goku was welcomed with a lovely dark pink _air bandung_. The two tallest of their party got up to go and get their food. Gojyo wanted noodles, prawn noodles with soup, and Hakkai went to order _Chinese rojak_, with extra _you tiao_ and _black century egg_. They slowly wandered back to their table.

Knowing it would be a few minutes before the food arrived, Sanzo and Gojyo both lit up for a quick smoke. Sanzo ceded gruffly in his mind, just for that alone he could forgive randy red. If it had been a place indoors he would not have gotten to smoke till they arrived at a pub. They sat around and caught up with each other's news. Talked about work, people at work and stuff they liked to do. Gojyo and Hakkai were film people. Although they generally went to see the same movies, Hakkai tended to enjoy the really scary ones…because they all knew that he was evil that way! Gojyo enjoyed more lighthearted stuff, funny ones and romances, but everybody liked Spiderman2. Even Sanzo. Of course he never actually said that he liked the movie. But that he had not said anything at all coming out of the cinema hall, derogatory or otherwise spoke volumes. Goku loved being in the pool where they lived. And Sanzo, well he liked to read, the papers mostly, or books sometimes. Sometimes it was more just to sit still and meditate…all from the comfort of being behind the paper, a kind of hiding place.

Well the food was slowly being brought to them. In the end all the dishes came at once. It was lucky then that they had picked a table for six, even if there were only four. Sanzo hated chili crab, because you had to get your hands dirty. But he took a steamed bun anyway and dipped it in the sauce. Goku will manage, and the other two would help him. He ate some rice after with the vegetables, picking at it with his chopsticks. Gojyo's noodles had come and the _rojak_ too. Hakkai told them to help themselves and Gojyo didn't offer his noodles to anybody. Probably afraid that Goku would take up on his offer and eat it all.

"You know black pepper crab is nicer"

"Well if you wanted that why didn't you tell me"

"You didn't ask."

"There's a place at Marine Parade called Long Beach that will let you order the black pepper and you can order the chili crab sauce on the side."

"Aa. I think it's a chain now."

"Yes, yes, there's even one nearby us."

"Can we go. Sanzo? Naa can we?"

"Finish your food up. We're here already now. So we will go there another time"

"Sanzo, we can do that one Saturday night and then you can come over to the flat and we can play mahjong after."

"Yeah that's a good idea 'Kai." Gojyo agreed, "and if we do that on a Saturday night you don't have to go to work the next day!"

"Oww! You did have to mention work didn't you."

They were halfway through the meal now, well that just meant that everyone was nearly done, except Goku. Gojyo waved one of the drinks ladies over

"Auntie can we have 4 beers please! Kirin ok!"

She scrutinized Goku, "is he old enough?" They all sighed. This again.

"Aiya! Auntie I just look young." Goku said indignantly as he fished out his _IC_ and waved it at her.

Satisfied she went to get the order.

"Oh man! Now I've gone and greased up my wallet."

"Look chill little bro' I'll get some wet wipes for you ok." Gojyo offered

"I'm out of smokes too" Sanzo requested.

"Yes, yes ok! Hakkai you don't want me to do the groceries while I'm at it do ya?"

"Ahahaha!"

It was nearly midnight now. The crowd was beginning to change. The tourists were slowly going back to their hotels, and the families had long since gone, and the earliest of the clubbers began to make an appearance. The _Praatha_ brigade Gojyo called them. They were round little fried flour things, and you could have them plain, with egg, onion or with egg and onion. They were very popular. As you'd expect any fast food, which was cheap and greasy to be. They came with a dollop of curry. It tasted oh so good after a night of drinking and clubbing.

Hawkers at Newton tended to open till at least three thirty or four (and beyond sometimes)in the morning on a Friday or Saturday night. Hakkai had gone there once with Sanzo, before they had known Goku or Gojyo. They had talked till the early hours drinking tea. But it was getting late for Goku. So they finished up their drinks, left the table and made their way to the taxi stand.

They let Sanzo and Goku take the first one. It wasn't like you had to wait more than two minutes for one! They said their goodnights as Sanzo bundled the younger man into the cab.

Left alone now, the taller man put his arm round Hakkai's shoulders.

"So do you want to go home or stop out?"

"Let's go home eh!"

"That's ok by me"

"Evening uncle…"

"Where to?"

"…"

owari

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Author's note: The kanji character used by Minekura-sensei for Son, in Goku's name, literally means Descendant.In Mandarin it means grandson (Thanks to sf for that little pointer there)

Anyone that needs clarification on any of the foods listed above can ask me. If I have made any errors to do with the food...pointers in the right direction will be appreciated.

Some of the places mentioned are works of fiction.


End file.
